Determining Eligibility: Step by Step

Whether a property is known in advance or found during an identification
effort, it must be evaluated with reference to the National Register Criteria
for Evaluation (36 CFR Part 60) in order to determine whether it is eligible
for inclusion in the Register. This section discusses the process of evaluation
as a series of sequential steps. In real life of course, these steps are
often collapsed into one another or taken together.

Because the cultural practices or beliefs that give a traditional cultural
property its significance are typically still observed in some form
at the time the property is evaluated, it is sometimes perceived that
the intangible practices or beliefs themselves, not the property, constitute
the subject of evaluation. There is naturally a dynamic relationship
between tangible and intangible traditional cultural resources, and
the beliefs or practices associated with a traditional cultural property
are of central importance in defining its significance. However, it
should be clearly recognized at the outset that the National Register
does not include intangible resources themselves. The entity evaluated
must be a tangible property--that is, a district, site, building, structure,
or object (see National Register Bulletin:
How to Apply the National Register Criteria for Evaluation,
for discussion of property types). The relationship between the property
and the beliefs or practices associated with it should be carefully
considered, however, since it is the beliefs and practices that may
give the property its significance and make it eligible for inclusion
in the National Register.

Construction by human beings is a necessary attribute of buildings
and structures, but districts, sites, and objects do not have to be
the products of, or contain, the work of human beings in order to
be classified as properties. For example, the National Register defines
a "site" as "the location of a significant event, a
prehistoric or historic occupation or activity, or a building or structure,
whether standing, ruined, or vanished, where the location itself possesses
historic, cultural, or archeological value regardless of the value
of any existing structure" (see National
Register Bulletin: How to Complete the National Register Registration
Form). Thus a property may be defined as a "site"
as long as it was the location of a significant event or activity,
regardless of whether the event or activity left any evidence of its
occurrence. A culturally significant natural landscape may be classified
as a site, as may the specific location where significant traditional
events, activities, or cultural observances have taken place. A natural
object such as a tree or a rock outcrop may be an eligible object
if it is associated with a significant tradition or use. A concentration,
linkage, or continuity of such sites or objects, or of structures
comprising a culturally significant entity, may be classified as a
district.

In considering the eligibility of a property that contains no observable
evidence of human activity, however, the documentary or oral evidence
for the association of the property with traditional events, activities
or observances should be carefully weighed and assessed. The National
Register discourages the nomination of natural features without sound
documentation of their historical or cultural significance.

In order to be eligible for inclusion in the Register, a property must
have "integrity of location, design, setting, materials, workmanship,
feeling, and association" (36 CFR Part 60). In the case of a traditional
cultural property, there are two fundamental questions to ask about integrity.
First, does the property have an integral relationship to traditional
cultural practices or beliefs; and second, is the condition of the property
such that the relevant relationships survive?

Integrity of relationship

Assessing the integrity of the relationship between a property and
the beliefs or practices that may give it significance involves developing
some understanding about how the group that holds the beliefs or carries
out the practices is likely to view the property. If the property is
known or likely to be regarded by a traditional cultural group as important
in the retention or transmittal of a belief, or to the performance of
a practice, the property can be taken to have an integral relationship
with the belief or practice, and vice-versa.

For example, imagine two groups living along the shores of a lake.
Each group practices a form of baptism to mark an individual's acceptance
into the group. Both carry out baptism in the lake. One group, however,
holds that baptism is appropriate in any body of water that is available;
the lake happens to be available, so it is used, but another lake, a
river or creek, or a swimming pool would be just as acceptable. The
second group regards baptism in this particular lake as essential to
its acceptance of an individual as a member. Clearly the lake is integrally
related to the second group's practice, but not to that of the first.

Integrity of condition

Like any other kind of historic property, a property that once had
traditional cultural significance can lose such significance through
physical alteration of its location, setting, design, or materials.
For example, an urban neighborhood whose structures, objects, and spaces
reflect the historically rooted values of a traditional social group
may lose its significance if these aspects of the neighborhood are substantially
altered.

In some cases a traditional cultural property can also lose its significance
through alteration of its setting or environment. For example, a location
used by an American Indian group for traditional spirit questing is
unlikely to retain its significance for this purpose if it has come
to be surrounded by housing tracts or shopping malls.

A property may retain its traditional cultural significance even though
it has been substantially modified, however. Cultural values are dynamic,
and can sometimes accommodate a good deal of change. For example, the
Karuk Indians of northwestern California continue to carry on world
renewal rites, ancient ceremonies featuring elaborate dances, songs,
and other ritual activities, along a stretch of the Klamath River that
is now the site of a highway, a Forest Service Ranger Station, a number
of residences, and a timber cutting operation. Specific locations important
in aspects of the ceremony remain intact, and accommodation has been
reached between the Karuk and other users of the land. The State Department
of Transportation has even erected "Ritual Crossing" signs
at locations where the Karuk religious practitioners cross the highway,
and built shallow depressions into the roadway which are filled with
sand in advance of the ceremony, so the feet of the practitioners need
not be profaned by contact with man-made macadam. As this example shows,
the integrity of a possible traditional cultural property must be considered
with reference to the views of traditional practitioners; if its integrity
has not been lost in their eyes, it probably has sufficient integrity
to justify further evaluation.

Some kinds of traditional cultural significance also may be retained
regardless of how the surroundings of a property may be changed. For
example, the First African Baptist Church Cemetery in Philadelphia,
rediscovered during archeological work in advance of highway construction
in 1985, has considerable cultural significance for the congregation
that traces descent from those interred in the Cemetery, and for Philadelphia's
African American community in general, even though its graves had been
buried under fill and modern construction for many decades.

It should also be recalled that even if a property has lost integrity
as a possible traditional cultural property, it may retain integrity
with reference to some other aspect of significance. For example, a
property whose cultural significance has been lost through disturbance
may still retain archeological deposits of significance for their information
content, and a neighborhood whose traditional residents no longer ascribe
significance to it may contain buildings of architectural importance.

Criterion A: Association with events that have made a significant
contribution to the broad patterns of our history.

The word "our" in this criterion may be taken to refer to
the group to which the property may have traditional cultural significance,
and the word "history" may be taken to include traditional
oral history as well as recorded history. For example, Mt. Tonaachaw
on Moen Island in Truk, Federated States of Micronesia, is in the National
Register in part because of association with oral traditions about the
establishment of Trukese society.

"Events" can include specific moments in history of a series
of events reflecting a broad pattern or theme. For example, the ongoing
participation of an ethnic or social group in an area's history, reflected
in a neighborhood's buildings, streetscapes, or patterns of social activity,
constitutes such a series of events.

The association of a property with significant events, and its existence
at the time the events took place, must be documented through accepted
means of historical research. The means of research normally employed
with respect to traditional cultural properties include ethnographic,
ethnohistorical, and folklore studies, as well as historical and archeological
research. Sometimes, however, the actual time a traditional event took
place may be ambiguous; in such cases it may be impossible, and to some
extent irrelevant, to demonstrate with certainty that the property in
question existed at the time the traditional event occurred. For example,
events recounted in the traditions of Native American groups may have
occurred in a time before the creation of the world as we know it, or
at least before the creation of people. It would be fruitless to try
to demonstrate, using the techniques of history and science, that a
given location did or did not objectively exist in a time whose own
existence cannot be demonstrated scientifically. Such a demonstration
is unnecessary for purposes of eligibility determination; as long as
the tradition itself is rooted in the history of the group, and associates
the property with traditional events, the association can be accepted.

Criterion B: Association with the lives of persons significant in
our past.

Again, the word "our" can be interpreted with reference
to the people who are thought to regard the property as traditionally
important. The word "persons" can be taken to refer both to
persons whose tangible, human existence in the past can be inferred
on the basis of historical, ethnographic, or other research, and to
"persons" such as gods and demigods who feature in the traditions
of a group. For example, Tahquitz Canyon in southern California is included
in the National Register in part because of its association with Tahquitz,
a Cahuilla Indian demigod who figures importantly in the tribe's traditions
and is said to occupy an obsidian cave high in the canyon.

Criterion C (1): Embodiment of the distinctive characteristics of
a type, period, or method of construction. [Note: Criterion
C is not subdivided into subcriteria (1), (2), etc. in 36 CFR 60.4.
The subdivision given here is only for the convenience of the reader.]

This subcriterion applies to properties that have been constructed,
or contain constructed entities--that is, buildings, structures, or
built objects. For example, a neighborhood that has traditionally been
occupied by a particular ethnic group may display particular housing
styles, gardens, street furniture or ornamentation distinctive of the
group. Honolulu's Chinatown, for example, embodies the distinctive cultural
values of the City's Asian community in its architecture, landscaping,
signage, and ornamentation.

Criterion C (2): Representative of the work of a master.

A property identified in tradition or suggested by scholarship to
be the work of a traditional master builder or artisan may be regarded
as the work of a master, even though the precise identity of the master
may not be known.

Criterion C (3): Possession of high artistic values.

A property made up of or containing art work valued by a group for
traditional cultural reasons, for example a petroglyph or pictograph
site venerated by an Indian group, or a building whose decorative elements
reflect a local ethnic groups distinctive modes of expression, may be
viewed as having high artistic value from the standpoint of the group.

A property may be regarded as representative of a significant and
distinguishable entity, even though it lacks individual distinction,
if it represents or is an integral part of a larger entity of traditional
cultural importance. The larger entity may, and usually does, possess
both tangible and intangible components. For example, certain locations
along the Russian River in California are highly valued by the Pomo
Indians, and have been for centuries, as sources of high quality sedge
roots needed in the construction of the Pomo's world famous basketry.
Although the sedge fields themselves are virtually indistinguishable
from the surrounding landscape, and certainly indistinguishable by the
untrained observer from other sedge fields that produce lower quality
roots, they are representative of, and vital to, the larger entity of
Pomo basketmaking. Similarly, some deeply venerated landmarks in Micronesia
are natural features, such as rock outcrops and groves of trees; these
are indistinguishable visually (at least to the outside observer) from
other rocks and trees, but they figure importantly in chants embodying
traditional sailing directions and lessons about traditional history.
As individual objects they lack distinction, but the larger entity of
which they are a part--Micronesian navigational and historical tradition--is
of prime importance in the area's history.

Criterion D: History of yielding, or potential to yield, information
important in prehistory or history.

Properties that have traditional cultural significance often have
already yielded, or have the potential to yield, important information
through ethnographic, archeological, sociological, folkloric, or other
studies. For example, ethnographic and ethnohistorical studies of Kaho'olawe
Island in Hawai'i, conducted in order to clarify its eligibility for
inclusion in the National Register, have provided important insights
into Hawai'ian traditions and culture and into the history of twentieth
century efforts to revitalize traditional Hawai'ian culture. Similarly,
many traditional American Indian village sites are also archeological
sites, whose study can provide important information about the history
and prehistory of the group that lived there. Generally speaking, however,
a traditional cultural property's history of yielding, or potential
to yield, information, if relevant to its significance at all, is secondary
to its association with the traditional history and culture of the group
that ascribes significance to it.

Step 4: Determine whether any of the National Register criteria considerations
(36 CFR 60.4) make the property ineligible

Generally speaking, a property is not eligible for inclusion in the Register
if it represents a class of properties to which one or more of the six
"criteria considerations"
listed in 36 CFR 60.4 applies, and is not part of a district that is
eligible.

Consideration A: Ownership by a religious institution or use for
religious purposes.

A "religious property," according to National Register
guidelines, requires additional justification (for nomination) because
of the necessity to avoid any appearance of judgement by government
about the merit of any religion or belief"(see How
to Complete the National Register Form for details).Conversely,
it is necessary to be careful not to allow a similar judgment to serve
as the basis for determining a property to be ineligible for inclusion
in the Register. Application of this criteria consideration to traditional
cultural properties is fraught with the potential for ethnocentrism
and discrimination. In many traditional societies, including most
American Indian societies, the clear distinction made by Euroamerican
society between religion and the rest of culture does not exist. As
a result, properties that have traditional cultural significance are
regularly discussed by those who value them in terms that have religious
connotations. Inyan Karan Mountain, for example, a National Register
property in the Black Hills of South Dakota, is significant in part
because it is the abode of spirits in the traditions of the Lakota
and Cheyenne. Some traditional cultural properties are used for purposes
that are definable as religious in Euroamerican terms, and this use
is intrinsic to their cultural significance.

Kootenai Falls on the Kootenai River in Idaho, part of the National
Register-eligible Kootenai Falls Cultural Resource District, has been
used for centuries as a vision questing site by the Kootenai tribe.
The Helkau Historic District in northern California is a place where
traditional religious practitioners go to make medicine and commune
with spirits, and Mt. Tonaachaw in Truk is an object of spiritual veneration.
The fact that such properties have religious connotations does not automatically
make them ineligible for inclusion in the Register.

Applying the "religious exclusion" without careful and sympathetic
consideration to properties of significance to a traditional cultural
group can result in discriminating against the group by effectively
denying the legitimacy of its history and culture. The history of a
Native American group, as conceived by its indigenous cultural authorities,
is likely to reflect a kind of belief in supernatural beings and events
that Euroamerican culture categorizes as religious, although the group
involved, as is often the case with Native American groups, may not
even have a word in its language for "religion." To exclude
from the National Register a property of cultural and historical importance
to such a group, because its significance tends to be expressed in terms
that to the Euroamerican observer appear to be "religious"
is ethnocentric in the extreme.

In simplest terms, the fact that a property is used for religious
purposes by a traditional group, such as seeking supernatural visions,
collecting or preparing native medicines, or carrying out ceremonies,
or is described by the group in terms that are classified by the outside
observer as "religious" should not by itself be taken to
make the property ineligible, since these activities may be expressions
of traditional cultural beliefs and may be intrinsic to the continuation
of traditional cultural practices. Similarly, the fact that the group
that owns a property--for example, an American Indian tribe--describes
it in religious terms, or constitutes a group of traditional religious
practitioners, should not automatically be taken to exclude the property
from inclusion in the Register. Criteria Consideration A was included
in the Criteria for Evaluation in order to avoid allowing historical
significance to be determined on the basis of religious doctrine,
not in order to exclude arbitrarily any property having religious
associations. National Register guidelines stress the fact that properties
can be listed in or determined eligible for the Register for their
association with religious history, or with persons significant in
religion, if such significance has "scholarly, secular recognition"(again,
found in How to Complete the National Register Form).The integral
relationship among traditional Native American culture, history, and
religion is widely recognized in secular scholarship (for example
see U.S. Commission on Civil Rights 1983; Michaelson 1986). Studies
leading to the nomination of traditional cultural properties to the
Register should have among their purposes the application of secular
scholarship to the association of particular properties with broad
patterns of traditional history and culture. The fact that traditional
history and culture may be discussed in religious terms does not make
it less historical or less significant to culture, nor does it make
properties associated with traditional history and culture ineligible
for inclusion in the National Register.

Consideration B: Relocated properties.

Properties that have been moved from their historically important
locations are not usually eligible for inclusion in the Register,
because "the significance of (historic properties) is embodied
in their locations and settings as well as in the (properties) themselves"
and because "one basic purpose of the National Register is to
encourage the preservation of historic properties as living parts
of their communities"(see How
to Complete the National Register Form). This consideration
is relevant but rarely applied formally to traditional cultural properties;
in most cases the property in question is a site or district which
cannot be relocated in any event. Even where the property can be relocated,
maintaining it on its original site is often crucial to maintaining
its importance in traditional culture, and if it has been moved, most
traditional authorities would regard its significance as lost.

Where a property is intrinsically portable, however, moving it does
not destroy its significance, provided it remains "located in
a historically appropriate setting"(How to Complete the National
Register Form).For example, a traditionally important canoe or other
watercraft would continue to be eligible as long as it remained in
the water or in an appropriate dry land context (e.g., a boathouse).
A property may also retain its significance if it has been moved historically,
which the National Register bulletin How
to Complete the National Register Formaddresses. For example,
totem poles moved from one Northwest Coast village to another in early
times by those who made or used them would not have lost their significance
by virtue of the move. In some cases, actual or putative relocation
even contributes to the significance of a property. The topmost peak
of Mt. Tonaachaw in Truk, for example, is traditionally thought to
have been brought from another island; the stories surrounding this
magical relocation are parts of the mountains cultural significance.

In some cases it may be possible to relocate a traditionally significant
property and still retain its significance, provided the property's
"historic and present orientation, immediate setting, and general
environment" are carefully considered in planning and executing
the move. At Lake Sonoma in California, for example, the U.S. Army
Corps of Engineers relocated a number of boulders containing petroglyphs
having artistic, archeological, and traditional cultural significance
to protect them from inundation. The work was done in consultation
with members of the local Pomo Indian tribe, and apparently did not
destroy the significance of the boulders in the eyes of the tribe.
The location to which a property is relocated, and the extent to which
it retains its integrity after relocation, must be carefully considered
in judging its continued eligibility for inclusion in the National
Register (see How to Complete the
National Register Formfor general guidelines).

Consideration C: Birthplaces and graves.

Birthplaces and graves of famous persons are not usually eligible
for inclusion in the Register as such. If the birthplace or gravesite
of a historical person is significant for reasons other than its association
with that person, however, the property can of course be eligible.
Thus in the case of a traditional cultural property, if someone's
birth or burial within the property's boundaries was incidental to
the larger traditional significance of the property, the fact that
it occurred does not make the property ineligible. For example, in
South Texas, the burial site of Don Pedrito Jaramillo, a well documented
folk healer who practiced at the turn of the century, has for more
than seventy years been a culturally significant site for the performance
of traditional healing rituals by Mexican American folk healers. Here
the cultural significance of the site as a center for healing is related
to the intangible belief that Don Pedrito's spirit is stronger there
than in other places, rather than to the fact of his burial there.

On the other hand, it is possible for the birth or burial itself to
have been ascribed such cultural importance that its association with
the property contributes to its significance. Tahquitz Canyon in southern
California, for example, is in a sense the traditional "birthplace"
of the entire Cahuilla Indian people. Its status as such does not make
it ineligible; on the contrary, it is intrinsic to its eligibility.
Mt. Tonaachaw in Truk is according to some traditions the birthplace
of the culture hero Souwooniiras, whose efforts to organize society
among the islands of Truk Lagoon are the stuff of Trukese legend. The
association of his birth with the mountain does not make the mountain
ineligible; rather, it contributes to its eligibility.

Consideration D: Cemeteries.

Cemeteries are not ordinarily eligible for inclusion in the Register
unless they "derive (their) primary significance from graves
of persons of transcendent importance, from age, from distinctive
design values, or from association with historic events" (How
to Complete the National Register Form).Many traditional cultural
properties contain cemeteries, however, whose presence contributes
to their significance. Tahquitz Canyon, for example, whose major significance
lies in its association with Cahuilla traditional history, contains
a number of cemeteries that are the subjects of great concern to the
Cahuilla people. The fact that they are present does not render the
Canyon ineligible; on the contrary, as reflections of the long historical
association between the Cahuilla and the Canyon, the cemeteries reflect
and contribute to the Canyon's significance. Thus the fact that a
traditional cultural property is or contains a cemetery should not
automatically be taken to render it ineligible.

Consideration E: Reconstruction.

A reconstructed property--that is, a new construction that ostensibly
reproduces the exact form and detail of a property or portion of a
property that has vanished, as it appeared at a specific period in
time--is not normally eligible for inclusion in the Register unless
it meets strict criteria, as can be found in How to Complete the National
Register Form.. The fact that some reconstruction has occurred within
the boundaries of a traditional cultural property, however, does not
justify regarding the property as ineligible for inclusion in the
Register. For example, individuals involved in the revitalization
of traditional Hawai'ian culture and religion have reconstructed certain
religious structures on the island of Kaho'olawe; while the structures
themselves might not be eligible for inclusion in the Register, their
construction in no way diminishes the island's eligibility.

Consideration F: Commemoration.

Like other properties, those constructed to commemorate a traditional
event or person cannot be found eligible for inclusion in the Register
based on association with that event or person alone (see How to Complete
the national Register Form for details). The mere fact that commemoration
is involved in the use or design of a property should not be taken
to make the property ineligible, however. For example, traditional
meetinghouses in the Republic of Palau, included in the National Register,
are typically ornamented with "storyboards" commemorating
traditional events; these derive their design from traditional Palauan
aesthetic values, and thus contribute to the cultural significance
of the structures. They connect the structures with the traditional
history of the islands, and in no way diminish their cultural, ethnographic,
and architectural significance. Similarly, the murals painted in many
local post offices across the United States by artists employed during
the 1930s by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) often commemorate
local historical events, but this does not make the murals, or the
buildings in which they were painted, ineligible for the Register.

Consideration G: Significance achieved within the past 50 years.

Properties that have achieved significance only within the 50 years
preceding their evaluation are not eligible for inclusion in the Register
unless "sufficient historical perspective exists to determine
that the property is exceptionally important and will continue to
retain that distinction in the future" ( How to Complete the
National Register Form)This is an extremely important criteria consideration
with respect to traditional cultural values. A significance ascribed
to a property only in the past 50 years cannot be considered traditional.

As an example, consider a mountain peak used by an Indian tribe for
communication with the supernatural. If the peak has been used by members
of the tribe for many years, or if it was used by members of the tribe
in prehistory or early history, it may be eligible, but if its use has
begun only within the past 50 years, it is probably not eligible.

The fact that a property may have gone unused for a lengthy period
of time, with use beginning again only recently, does not make the property
ineligible for the Register. For example, assume that the Indian tribe
referred to above used the mountain peak in prehistory for communication
with the supernatural, but was forced to abandon such use when it was
confined to a distant reservation, or when its members were converted
to Christianity. Assume further that a revitalization of traditional
religion has begun in the last decade, and as a result the peak is again
being used for vision quests similar to those carried out there in prehistory.
The fact that the contemporary use of the peak has little continuous
time depth does not make the peak ineligible; the peak's association
with the traditional activity reflected in its contemporary use is what
must be considered in determining eligibility.

The length of time a property has been used for some kinds of traditional
purposes may be difficult to establish objectively. Many cultural
uses may have left little or no physical evidence, and may not have
been noted by ethnographers or early visitors to the area. Some such
uses are explicitly kept from outsiders by members of the group ascribing
significance to the property. Indirect evidence and inference must
be weighed carefully, by or in consultation with trained ethnographers,
ethnohistorians, and other specialists, and professional judgments
made that represent one's best, good-faith interpretation of the available
data.